Neeli Bendapudi made her first appearance Tuesday as new president at the University of Louisville April 3, 2018
Astrid Hacker/Louisville Courier Journal

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Neeli Bendapudi speaks to the media after a press conference announcing her as the new president of the University of Louisville.
April 3, 2018(Photo: Michael Clevenger/Louisville Courier Journal)Buy Photo

“When you have a conversation with her, you come out feeling better about yourself,” said professor Sanjay Mistra, who teaches in the business school where Bendapudi was dean. "She is an enthusiastic go-getter who sets big goals and works very hard to achieve them.”

She also was a prolific fundraiser in Lawrence. As dean of the College of Business, she led an initiative to build the $70.5 million Capitol Federal Hall, the university's most expensive privately funded academic building.

“She raised more in 18 months than people before her raised in 13 years," Mistra said.

“She is an enthusiastic go-getter who sets big goals and works very hard to achieve them.”

Sanjay Mistra, Kansas professor

Bendapudi (Ben Dah Pu Dee), 54, was born on and grew up on the coast of South India in the city of Vizag, about 1,100 miles south of the capital of New Delhi.

Bendapudi is paid just $361,299 annually in her role at Kansas.

When she was a small child, her father, a professor, left her and her mother and two sisters behind for three years when he went to Kansas to write his doctoral dissertation – on American playwright Arthur Miller.

She has said he instilled a love in her for the Kansas Jayhawks from afar. After she earned an undergraduate degree and MBA from Andhra University, one of India's oldest public universities, she traveled to Lawrence – her first trip to the U.S. – to earn her own doctorate.

“She has been a basketball fan for years,” Moss said. “I’m sure she will adapt well to Louisville.”

Neeli Bendapudi is greeted with a standing ovation from the University board of trustees as she enters the press conference to announce her as the new president of the University of Louisville.
April 3, 2018 Michael Clevenger/Louisville Courier Journal

David Grissom, chairman of the UofL board of trustees, watches as Neeli Bendapudi speaks during a press conference after she was announced as the new president of the University of Louisville.
April 3, 2018 Michael Clevenger/Louisville Courier Journal

Neeli Bendapudi shares a laugh with her husband, Venkat, during a press conference announcing that she will be the new president of the University of Louisville.
April 3, 2018 Michael Clevenger/Louisville Courier Journal

Neeli Bendapudi is greeted with a standing ovation from the University board of trustees as she enters the press conference to announce her as the new president of the University of Louisville.
April 3, 2018 Michael Clevenger/Louisville Courier Journal

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After teaching at Texas A&M, she landed at Ohio State University, where she continued research in her specialty — how companies and other organizations can best serve their customers.

She has written more than 15 papers on that topic, published in periodicals as diverse as Harvard Business Review (“Clueing in Customers") to the U.S. Airways in-flight magazine (“How to Use Language that Employees Get”).

She also taught, winning plaudits from students. At Ohio State, they gave a nearly perfect score on “Rate My Professor," with one student calling her “fan-flippin-tastic” to another who said, “Dr. Bendapudi is the best. You will never get bored and you will actually learn.”

She also worked in the private sector, as executive vice president and chief customer officer of Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington National Bank (now Huntington Bancshares). Kansas said she also worked as a consultant for dozens of the world’s largest companies, including Proctor & Gamble, Deloitte & Touch and Cessna.

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Neeli Bendapudi(Photo: Michael Clevenger/Louisville Courier Journal)

She is married to Venkat Bendapudi, also a native of India, who teaches management and human resources at Kansas' business school. They have one adult daughter, Sirisha, who is a corporate lawyer in Chicago.

On being named Kansas' senior academic officer and vice chancellor in 2016, she said her highest priority was retaining students. She also said she was committed to transparency, whenever possible, and called shared governance “incredibly important.”

Joyce Claterbos, a lecturer in the business school who was a graduate student with Bendapudi as well, said she prefers hugs to handshakes and “never met a stranger.”

She said Bendapudi didn't talk about politics or social issues.

“She has been a basketball fan for years. I’m sure she will adapt well to Louisville.”

Brian Moss, KU Senate President

Claterbos described her as a coalition builder. “She spent a lot of time with various constituencies,” Claterbos said. “She really focused on building relationships with donors and alumni and business and industry.

“I don’t know when she sleeps, frankly.”

Precious Porras, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs at Kansas, said one of Bendapudi's top four commitments has been to equity and diversity on campus and that she has an extraordinary commitment to students.